Like books about racial and LGBT

Q+

themes are banned nationwide, the California Department of Education and Democratic lawmakers are stepping up efforts to provide diverse and inclusive classes in schools.

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expected

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.

of public instruction Tony Thurmond and lawmakers, meeting for the first time as part of a new task force on Wednesday, called on textbook publishers to commit to producing materials that are “free of discrimination and include the diverse stories that the student body of California.”

Task force members, all of whom are Democrats, said this includes instruction on the LGBTQ

+

community and people with disabilities, as well as Black, Native American, Latino and Asian American and Pacific Islander history.

Almost 77

% per cent

of California public school students are people of color, according to state data.

While California is considered a leader in inclusive education and already has comprehensive curriculum standards that require diversity in school classes, the first hearing of its kind was a symbolic show of power from the Democrats who control the U.S. Capitol as GOP-controlled states, including Florida and Texas, have passed legislation to curtail some teachings.

“Today’s conversation is not just a response to what is happening in our country. It is a commitment on behalf of the State of California. … This is a commitment we had 10 years ago that we have today and will continue to doing.” have in another 10 years

,

said Senator Monique

Lemon Lemon

(D-

Goleta Santa Barbara.

). “These are California values.”

California pays textbook publishers nearly $500 million a year, Thurmond said. Representatives of companies that produce school materials, including the College Board and the Benchmark Education Co.

mpany

tested at the State Capitol on Wednesday that they are committed to diversity and inclusion.

Thurmond warned that California will not partner with publishers familiar with Republican concerns in other parts of the country.

“If you’re going to strip people’s history in another state, don’t expect to do business in the state

S

state of California,” he said.

The hearing comes after Florida

Governor and Republican presidential hopeful

Ron DeSantis

a Republican presidential candidate,

signed legislation to limit sexual orientation teachings, known to critics as the “

D

not

S

Hi

G

ay” bill. Florida counties are now facing lawsuits from students and publishers, including a case over the removal of a children’s book about a penguin with two fathers.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has opposed such policies, posing in photos reading banned books like “Beloved” by Toni Morrison and demanding records of textbook companies in an effort to determine whether publishers supplying books to California alter texts they supply to red states.

“You can’t rewrite history in a backroom. You can’t rewrite the basic facts about segregation, the

H

olocaust, or the story of Rosa Parks,” he said if you know aimed at DeSantis, a consistent political foe in May.

California passed “social content” standards a decade ago that require schools to represent cultural and racial diversity “accurately and equitably” and avoid gender stereotypes. The state has also introduced laws mandating comprehensive sex education and LGBTQ+ history classes.

In 2021, California became the first state to require ethnic studies as a graduation requirement for high school students.

“This kind of hearing probably belongs more in other states than California,” Kevin Gordon, an education lobbyist who represents superintendents, said of Wednesday’s event. “I think they’re just trying to shed more sunshine on what the state is already doing, rather than kind of expanding outreach to school districts.”

But local school boards have broad powers, and education officials acknowledged at Wednesday’s hearing that it is difficult to enforce policies for California’s more than 10,000 schools.

As Republican organizations push to get like-minded conservatives elected to school boards statewide, national political debates on issues such as critical race theory and gender play out at a hyperlocal level.

A Temecula school board opposed the use of a textbook citing San Francisco politicians and gay rights leader Harvey Milk, who was assassinated in 1978. The move angered Newsom, who said in on know, This is not Texas or Florida. In the Golden State, our children have the freedom to learn.”

In Murietta, school administrators blocked the use of “Give Me Liberty!

:

An American History” by noted historian and Pulitzer Prize winner Eric Foner, in part because they said it portrayed negatively

former P

resident

Donald

Trump.

A meeting of the Glendale Unified school board led to protests and arrests over lessons on gender identity and sexuality.

Newsom, Thurmond and Att

ears

j. Gen.

eral

Rob Bonta wrote a letter to superintendents and principals this month, informing them

first 1st A

Restoration protections and state laws regarding “representative and unbiased” curriculum. The letter warned that districts that ban books could be asked to comply

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tournament

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general

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office to “allow it to analyze your agency’s actions and procedures.”

Thurmond accused some school boards of using the state’s deference to local control as a way to cover up “racism and hatred.”

“Local control does not give you the right to hurt or even threaten anyone,” he said.

Jackie Gardner, a high school physics teacher in San Jacinto, is rainbow LGBT

Q+

Pride flag hangs in her classroom

,

but has friends in other districts who wouldn’t be able to do the same, she said. State policies are “a gray area” and often depend on individual communities, she said.

“We have a lot of community members who still equate LGBTQ issues and a lot of other inclusion issues with something that’s inappropriate, which it definitely isn’t. We’re keeping kids alive by putting this in our textbooks,” Gardner said, pointing out high suicide rates among queer youth. “There are educators who stick their necks out for this inclusiveness and are not always supported by their school.”

Republican Lance Christensen, a vice president of the conservative California Policy Center who ran unsuccessfully for state superintendent last year, recently criticized Placer County schools for assigning the best

–

sales novel “The Hate U Give” by author Angie Thomas. The book is about teenagers

who was a witness

an unarmed black teenager

Who is

shot by a white police officer.

Christensen accused state Democrats of feigning outrage and blowing the issue out of proportion.

“Just because a school decides not to curate a particular book doesn’t mean they’re banning books, it just means they don’t have to accept what the activist class thinks they should force on these kids,” he said. “Parents can still pick up those books for their kids at any local book store

store. There is no

T

book burning happens.”

Members of the task force praised possible legislation that would work to make school boards more accountable for the issue

but efforts have so far run into roadblocks in the legislature, faced with concerns from education advocates who want to retain local control.